The present invention relates to a method for determining a collision characteristic of a vehicle collision for triggering safety means of the vehicle, to an apparatus for determining a collision characteristic of a vehicle collision for triggering safety means of the vehicle, and to a corresponding computer program product.
A detection of collisions, for example for airbag control devices of vehicles, is based on acceleration sensors. Triggering algorithms used to distinguish between cases of triggering and cases of non-triggering use for example an evaluation of signal features that in most cases are stronger in a case of triggering than in a case of non-triggering, in particular a strength of signals of such sensors. A trend toward lighter and shorter vehicles results for example in a harder front structure of these vehicles. This increases, in particular, signal amplitudes of sensor signals, for example in slow non-triggering situations against hard obstacles, in comparison with fast, triggering crashes against soft obstacles. Here, the signal features standardly used by such algorithms for characterizing the collision often supply results that are difficult to evaluate, for example with respect to effectiveness and informativeness in many cases of collision.
German Published Patent Application No 101 41 886 discloses a method for determining a triggering time for restraint means in a vehicle. Here, through formation of two time windows for the speed decrease in a crash, an increase in the speed decrease in the respective time windows, and a position of the time windows, are determined.